Sodomy in history, May

1718 — Pennsylvania reinstates the death penalty for sodomy.
1852 — Indiana abrogates common-law crimes, thus legalizing sodomy in the state.
1879 — Missouri permits anyone accused of committing the "infamous crime against nature" to sue for slander.
1901 — Sixteen-year-old Joseph Flaherty is committed to an insane asylum in Utah for engaging in sodomy. He is released after eight months.
1951 — The Universal Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) becomes effective and includes a sodomy provision for all members of the military.
1960 — The Colorado Supreme Court overturns the sodomy conviction of two men, saying that there was no evidence the crime actually occurred. It uses the euphemistic term "statutory offense" to describe their crime.
1977 — Arizona passes a new criminal code that abrogates common-law crimes and reduces the penalty for sodomy from a felony to a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and/or a $250 fine.
1990 — The Arizona Court of Appeals, in dictum, contradicts the 1976 Arizona Supreme Court ruling and holds that sodomy between married couples is not covered by the sodomy law.Sources:

Walt Whitman is best known for his controversial book, Leaves of Grass, a collection of lusty, lyrical poems. Whitman was, in one sense, the first modern gay author. He was certainly the first major poet to speak with a truly American voice; "readings of his poems convey their exuberance, poignancy, and sheer power." His sources were eclectic, ranging "from Emerson and the King James Bible to opera and political oratory." Whitman had a ten-year relationship with streetcar conductor, one Peter Doyle.

A few quotations from Whitman, for whom "the love of comrades" perhaps stands as the most intimate part of his message to the world - "Here the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting." Whitman, by his great power, originality and initiative, as well as by his deep insight and wide vision, is in many ways the inaugurator of a new era to mankind; and it is especially interesting to find that this idea of comradeship, and of its establishment as a social institution, plays so important a part with him. We know that in the Greek age, and more or less generally in the ancient and pagan world, comradeship was an institution; we know that in Christian and modern times, though existent, it was socially denied and ignored, and indeed to a great extent fell under a kind of ban; but now Whitman's attitude towards it suggests to us that it really is destined to pass into its third stage, to arise again, and become a recognized factor of modern life, and even in a more extended and perfect form than at first.

"It is to the development, identification, and general prevalence of that fervid comradeship (the adhesive love, at least rivalling the amative love hitherto possessing imaginative literature, if not going beyond it), that I look for the counterbalance and offset of our materialistic and vulgar American Democracy, and for the spiritualization thereof. Many will say it is a dream, and will not follow my inferences; but I confidently expect a time when there will be seen, running like a half-hid warp through all the myriad audible and visible worldly interests of America, threads of manly friendship, fond and loving, pure and sweet, strong and lifelong, carried to degrees hitherto unknown-not only giving tone to individual character, and making it unprecedently emotional, muscular, heroic, and refined, but having deepest relations to general politics. I say Democracy infers such loving comradeship, as its most inevitable twin or counterpart, without which it will be incomplete, in vain, and incapable of perpetuating itself."
Democratic Vistas, note

The three following poems are taken from Leaves of Grass:

"Recorders ages hence,
Come, I will take you down underneath this impassive exterior, I will tell you what to say of me,
Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover,
The friend the lover's portrait, of whom his friend his lover was fondest,
Who was not proud of his songs, but of the measureless ocean of love within him, and freely pour'd it forth,
Who often walk'd lonesome walks thinking of his dear friends, his lovers,
Who pensive away from one he lov'd often lay sleepless and dissatisfied at night,
Who knew too well the sick, sick dread lest the one he lov'd might secretly be indifferent to him,
Whose happiest days were far away through fields, in woods, on hills, he and another wan dering hand in hand, they twain apart from other men,
Who oft as he saunter'd the streets curv'd with his arm the shoulder of his friend, while the arm of his friend rested upon him also."
Leaves of Grass, 1891, 2 edn., p. 102

"When I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv'd with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow'd,
And else when I carous'd, or when my plans were accomplish'd, still I was not happy,
But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refresh'd, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn,
When I saw the full moon in the west grow pale and disappear in the morning light,
When I wander'd alone over the beach, and undressing bathed, laughing with the cool waters, and saw the sun rise,
And when I thought how my dear friend my lover was on his way coming, O then I was happy,
O then each breath tasted sweeter, and all that day my food nourish'd me more, and the beautiful day pass'd well,
And the next came with equal joy, and with the next at evening came my friend, and that night while all was still I heard the waters roll slowly continuously up the shores,
I heard the hissing rustle of the liquid and sands as directed to me whispering to congratulate me,
For the one I love most lay sleeping by me under the same cover in the cool night,
In the stillness in the autumn moonbeams his face was inclined toward me,
And his arm lay lightly around my breast-and that night I was happy."
Ibid, p. 103

"I hear it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institutions,
But really I am neither for nor against institutions,
(What indeed have I in common with them? or what with the destruction of them?)
Only I will establish in the Mannahatta and in every city of these States inland and seaboard,
And in the fields and woods, and above every keel little or large that dents the water,
Without edifices or rules or trustees or any argument,
The institution of the dear love of comrades."
lbid, p. 107

Sodomy in history, May

1668 — New Jersey passes its own sodomy law, separate from that of New York, mandating the death penalty, and applicable only to males.
1854 — Congress creates the Kansas and Nebraska Territories and makes no provision for criminal laws therein. Therefore, sodomy is legal in them.
1973 — The Florida Supreme Court upholds the state’s "unnatural and lascivious acts" law, declaring that the words "unnatural and lascivious" are not vague or overbroad. Just 17 months earlier, the same court struck down the "crime against nature" law as too vague.
1975 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals rules that a Gay bath house is a public place and any sex occurring therein is in a public place.
1980 — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court strikes down the state’s "voluntary deviate sexual conduct" law because it is discriminatory against persons not married to each other.

Sodomy in history, May 29th

1918 — Massachusetts reduces the maximum penalty for oral sex from 3 years to 2½ years in the house of correction, but still permits 5 years in the local jail.
1953 — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals upholds an "assault" conviction of a man for placing his hands on the private parts of an undercover police officer.
1967 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to the Florida sodomy law.

Monday, 28 May 2012

Born this day

Steve Strange (1959 - ) UKWelsh pop singer, best known as the lead singer and frontman of the 1980s pop group Visage

Sodomy in history, May 28th

1917 — Florida passes a law, separate from its "crime against nature" law, to outlaw "unnatural and lascivious acts." The penalty for it is a misdemeanor.
1962 — The U.S. Supreme Court reverses a lower court ruling that had overturned the sodomy conviction of a military officer caught in a public restroom.
1968 — The Nevada Supreme Court upholds the state’s "crime against nature" law against a vagueness challenge.
1976 — The Nevada Supreme Court upholds the right of the state to introduce into evidence in "crime against nature" trials evidence of the defendant’s masturbation in front of witnesses and possession of a pornographic film.

Sodomy in history, May 27th

1891 — A jury in Utah acquits two men of sodomy with each other despite the testimony of numerous eye witnesses.
1946 — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturns the conviction for sodomy of a man with his 8-year-old son because of vacillating testimony and evidence of malice of a former housekeeper who wanted the man to have sex with her and he refused.
1963 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear a challenge to the Rhode Island sodomy law.
1977 — Wyoming’s new sexual assault law, including repeal of its consensual sodomy law, takes effect.

Sodomy in history, May 26th

1864 — Congress creates the Montana Territory and makes no provision for criminal laws, so that sodomy is legal.
1939 — Michigan extends its "gross indecency" law of 1903 to cover sex between two women or between a man and a woman.

Sodomy in history, May 25th

1925 — The Arkansas Supreme Court rules that fellatio is outlawed by the "crime against nature" law.
1943 — Massachusetts requires bail for either the "crime against nature" or "unnatural and lascivious acts" to be prefaced by a mental health report.
1955 — The American Law Institute publishes its model penal code recommending the repeal of consensual sodomy laws.
1994 — Bermuda repeals its consensual sodomy law.

Died this day

Sodomy in history, May 24th

1610 — Virginia colony, via a military regulation, outlaws sodomy with a penalty of death.
1915 — In Ohio, a man enters the State Reformatory for sodomy after allowing himself to be masturbated by another, even though the Ohio sodomy law does not contemplate masturbation.
1963 — A California appellate court upholds the oral copulation conviction of a man after officers listened through his door and heard his bed moving.
1972 — The District of Columbia government announces that it will not prosecute private, consensual sodomy.

Sodomy in history, May 23rd

1925 — The Nebraska Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a doctor who engaged in sexual relations with both male and female patients.
1973 — The New Mexico Court of Appeals upholds the state’s "crime against nature" law. Judge Lewis Sutin pleads with the legislature to repeal it.
1977 — Tennessee enacts a new sexual assault law without repealing consenting adult laws.

Sodomy in history, May 22nd

1677 — In Connecticut, Nicholas Sension is convicted of sodomy and sentenced only to good behavior for the rest of his life. He has had a 30-year career of solicitations of other men, finally being brought to trial when he outrages sensibilities one too many times.
1900 — The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds a conviction under the 1896 oral sex clause. The Court quotes the father of the "victim" as saying that the defendant "sucked the cock of my son Ned until he has lost his mind."
1905 — A California appeals court overturns a sodomy conviction because the information did not make clear that the partner, Frank Derby, was a male. It says that Frank is a common name for women, also.
1923 — New York amends its disorderly conduct law to include any male who "frequents or loiters about a public place soliciting men for the purpose of committing the crime against nature."
1957 — A California appellate court upholds a conviction for attempted sodomy of two prisoners seen kissing.
1970 — The Minnesota Supreme Court overturns the sodomy conviction of a man after restroom surveillance from above.
1995 — The Louisiana Supreme Court overturns a trial court’s finding that the state’s sodomy law is unconstitutional.

Sodomy in history, May

May 21
1930 — A California appellate court upholds the oral copulation convictions of three men in Palm Springs after an investigation into "activities" there. The court would not permit the three to withdraw their guilty pleas.
1962 — A New York appellate court decides that the oral sex provision of the sodomy law can not be enforced against both partners. This decision is reversed by the State Court of Appeals.

Sodomy in history, May 20th

1884 — The Rhode Island Supreme Court rules that repeal of a statute in derogation of the common law revives the common-law provision. Since the state recognizes common-law crimes, this means that repeal of the sodomy law will not legalize consensual sodomy.
1940 — The Mississippi Supreme Court rules that repeal of a statute in derogation of the common law revives the common-law provision. Since the state recognizes common-law crimes, this means that repeal of the sodomy law will not legalize consensual sodomy.
1954 — A California appellate court upholds the conviction of a man for oral copulation that is based only on police testimony.
1977 — Nevada passes a new criminal code that changes the sodomy law to be applicable only to people of the same sex. It is retained as a felony with a 1-6 year penalty.

Died this day

Sodomy in history, May 19th

1894 — Ohio repeals its "sex toys" law and expands the ban on any instrument of an "immoral or indecent nature."
1947 — The Colorado Supreme Court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man whose love letters to another were admitted into evidence against him.
1965 — North Carolina changes the penalty for sodomy from 5-60 years to a sentence "in the discretion of the court." The following year the North Carolina Supreme Court determines that, due to another law regarding unspecified penalties, the maximum that can be handed down is 10 years.
1976 — The Iowa Supreme Court rules that the state’s sodomy law does not apply to married couples, even though there is no statutory exemption for them.
1981 — Iowa repeals its law requiring a coroner’s investigation of deaths resulting from "unnatural sex" relations.

Died this day

Sodomy in history, May 18th

1846 — Michigan raises the maximum penalty for sodomy from 3 years to 15 years and repeals the 1841 law allowing prosecution on proof of penetration only.
1943 — The Michigan Supreme Court overturns a trial court’s action in denying a Gay man convicted of gross indecency a jury trial to determine if he had recovered from his "psychopathy." The Court points out that the jury trial was required by law.
1979 — Massachusetts bans those convicted of sodomy from being school bus drivers.
1983 — An Ohio trial court dismisses an importuning charge against a man who had been blatantly solicited by an undercover police officer and responded to the solicitation.
1990 — Kansas attempts to overrule the 1989 decision of the state’s Supreme Court that cunnilingus wasn’t a violation of the state’s sodomy law by passing a law that covers only heterosexual cunnilingus.

Sodomy in history, May 17th

1820 — Michigan passes a new criminal code. The sodomy provision lowers the penalty to a maximum of three years at solitary and hard labor and a fine up to $300.
1884 — Congress passes a law extending all laws of Oregon to the Alaska Territory, including Oregon’s sodomy law. For the preceding 22 years, Alaska had no criminal laws whatsoever.
1963 — Minnesota passes a new criminal code, but does not deal with the sexual offenses section, claiming that it is too controversial to handle.
1967 — Minnesota enacts a new sex offenses law, keeping all consenting adult laws, but reducing their penalty from felony to misdemeanor.
1976 — Maryland passes a new sexual offenses law, but fails to repeal its felony sodomy law. The repeal passed the Senate, but could not get through the conservative House Judiciary Committee. All other consenting adult laws are repealed.
1978 — The Iowa Supreme Court rules that the state’s repealed sodomy law would have been constitutional as applied to consensual same-sex acts.
1979 — Nevada prohibits solicitation of a minor for the crime against nature.

Sodomy in history, May 16

1913 — Arizona passes a new criminal code and extends its sodomy law to cover fellatio, but not cunnilingus. The code also permits a wife to testify at her discretion either for or against her husband if he is on trial for the "crime against nature." It also reduces the penalty to a maximum of 5 years in prison.
1953 — The Georgia Court of Appeals rejects a civil suit by a mother against a theatre for employing a man who had sex with her son.
1957 — The Virgin Islands outlaws oral sex.
1977 — Alabama passes a new criminal code that abrogates common-law crimes and reduces the penalty for sodomy from a felony to a misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to one year in jail. Married couples are exempted from its coverage.
2000 — The Louisiana Supreme Court strikes down the state’s law against "obscene devices," finding a constitutional right to them.

Friday, 4 May 2012

On the night of Monday, May 4, 1998, Swiss Guard Lance Corporate Cedric Tornay, 23, killed Lt. Col. Alois Estermann, 43, and his Venezuelan wife, Gladys Meza Romero, 49. After they were dead, Tornay knelt, put his service revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The Vatican handled the autopsy and investigation of the crime by itself, without asking for help from Italian officials. They considered the case clear-cut. “It was a fit of madness in a person with very peculiar psychological characteristics,” papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the day after the killings. ”That is the only hypothesis,” a Vatican official confirmed. “There is no reason to advance any alternative.”

Estermann and his wife were given a splendid funeral, concelebrated by 16 cardinals and 30 bishops. Before the service, Pope John Paul II made a point of praying at all three caskets, which were displayed, side by side, for viewing. Tornay was given a separate funeral in a chapel in the small church of St. Anne’s.